In September 1986, Cleveland, Ohio, launched into an ambitious plan. The United Way aimed to set a new world record by releasing an astounding one and a half million balloons into the sky, a massive fundraising event to benefit the community. Thousands of dedicated volunteers, many of them students, spent long hours diligently filling helium balloons within a colossal structure built right on Public Square. This incredible Cleveland Balloon Fest was envisioned as a spectacular celebration, showcasing the city’s vibrant spirit and generosity.
However, what began as a moment of hopeful celebration quickly took an unforeseen and tragic turn. As unexpected weather patterns shifted, the vast colorful cloud of helium balloons descended, still inflated, blanketing Cleveland’s land and waterways, including Lake Erie. This created widespread disruption and, most tragically, severely hampered an urgent Coast Guard search for two missing fishermen. Our American Stories delves into this unforgettable event, revealing how a well-intentioned world record attempt became a powerful and poignant reminder of nature’s unpredictable force and the profound, lasting impact of our actions.
📖 Read the Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: This is Our American Stories, and we bring you stories of all sorts on this program. And today we bring you a story about a catastrophe of epic proportions that took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. Here’s Jesse.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: You can inflate a balloon in three seconds, four seconds, I understand.
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Speaker 3: How long is it gonna take these kids with no experience?
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Speaker 4: We’re figuring that they’ll do about two to three balloons a minute. I’ve been doing this since I was fifteen years old, so it’s unfair to compare, but two to three balloons a minute, each kid is going to do correctly about seven hundred balloons or so for the day, and we’ll do it in about four to six hours, all the balloons.
00:00:51
Speaker 2: In September of nineteen eighty-six, United Way of Cleveland, Ohio, set a world record by releasing almost one and a half million balloons up into the sky. Dar. Remember, folks, don’t park on the square because this ain’t a place for your car this weekend.
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Speaker 3: Back to you.
00:01:07
Speaker 4: Sounds like fun, David.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: The event was intended to be a harmless fundraising publicity stunt, but the balloons drifted back over the city, Lake Erie, and land and the surrounding area, causing problems for traffic and the nearby airport. I understand we might have a northerly wind, too, so they’ll all wind up over Canada. The stunt was coordinated by Balloon Arts, a Los Angeles-based company that spent six months preparing for this. A rectangular structure the size of a city block, measuring two hundred and fifty feet by one hundred and fifty feet and rising three stories high, covered with a one-piece net of woven mesh material, was set up to hold the balloons inside the structure. Twenty-five hundred students and other volunteers spent many hours filling balloons with healing.
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Speaker 5: Ladies and gentlemen. Live from downtown Cleveland. It’s Big Chuck and Little Toun in front of the biggest happening all round.
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Speaker 2: Originally planned to release two million balloons, but stopped at over one point four million.
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Speaker 5: What is your name?
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Speaker 6: Tanya.
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Speaker 3: Okay?
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Speaker 6: Tanya.
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Speaker 5: Show everybody what you have on your hands there?
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Speaker 6: What are those let’s pay vantages?
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Speaker 3: Okay?
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Speaker 1: And what are they for?
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Speaker 6: Therefore? Can get away of swords?
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Speaker 4: Hands?
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Speaker 7: Okay?
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Speaker 5: Did you get any bliss thos?
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Speaker 3: Yes.
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Speaker 1: Three.
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Speaker 5: Are you having a good time?
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Speaker 7: Are you tired?
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: The children would sell sponsorships to benefit United Way at the price of one dollar for every two balloons that were purchased.
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Speaker 3: Okay, Chuck. As you can see, they’re going strong. They’re blowing them up.
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Speaker 5: I still think they…
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Speaker 3: …have the record.
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Speaker 1: Back to you, Chuck.
00:02:39
Speaker 4: Cleveland’s your time. It’s time to say yes. It’s time to say it is a happening city. We are on the move. It’s no longer the butt of jokes or anything. I’ve been in this city now for six months and I absolutely love it. My wife and I have even talked about moving here at our friends in L.A. think we’re nuts.
00:02:53
Speaker 2: On Saturday, September twenty-seventh, nineteen eighty-six, with a rainstorm approaching, organizers decided on an early release of the balloons at about 1:50 p.m. Easter.
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Speaker 8: Nine, ey, seven, six, five, four, three, two! What d away!
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Speaker 3: The losing.
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Speaker 4: And the fairs up?
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Speaker 5: Body go John!
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Close to one point five million balloons rose up from Cleveland’s Public Square, surrounding Terminal Tower.
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Speaker 5: Ladies and gentlemen, there is no “Mistake on the Lake” anymore. Cleveland has now broken the Guinness Book of World Records. They’re released over one million, five hundred thousand balloons.
00:03:42
Speaker 1: Thank, think of that, Chuck.
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Speaker 3: The Guinness World Records.
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Speaker 5: The Cleveland home of the Home of the Home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All of this in Cleveland, Ohio, all Oregan City now.
00:03:54
Speaker 2: Typically, a helium-filled latex balloon that’s released outdoors will stay up in the air long enough to be deflated before it descends to Earth. However, the Balloon Fest balloons were hit with a front of cool air and rain, which caused them to drop towards the ground, still inflated, clogging the land and waterways of Northeast Ohio. Two fishermen who had gone out on September twenty-sixth were reported missing by their families the day of the event.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: It’s been an exhausting search for these Coast Guards when they’ve been out on the water most of the day looking for two forty-year-old Cleveland man Skim Sullivan and Raymond Broderick. They went out fishing about an hour before last night’s heavy storm blew through. This is their boat, a pair of life jackets still in it, along with a hat and a fishing pole. The boat’s motor is gone. Its sides are battered, apparently from pounding all night against this section of the break wall off Edgewater Park. That’s where the Coast Guard found the boat about 8:30 this morning.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: When the crew tried to spot the fishermen floating in the lake, the balloons in the water made it impossible to spot anyone in the lake.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: Ironically, that big balloon launch at Cleveland today is one of the things it’s making this search so tough for the Coast Guard. Imagine trying to find somebody floating out here, or even spotting a light jacket with all these balloons on the water.
00:05:06
Speaker 7: It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack here, because you’re looking for more or less a head or an orange life jacket. Here, you have a couple hundred thousand orange balloons, and it’s just her hard to decipher which is which.
00:05:20
Speaker 2: On September twenty-ninth, the coastcards suspended at search. The fishermen’s bodies were subsequently washed ashore.
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Speaker 6: Because of whether, sixty percent of the balloons launched landed here instead of the plan ten percent. Many of them were found on Lake Erie.
00:05:34
Speaker 2: The local airport had to shut down a runway. Traffic collisions were also reported as drivers swerved to avoid slow-motion blizzards of multi-colored balloon. But.
00:05:44
Speaker 6: The balloons that covered the lake and cost concern on Saturday are no longer here today. No one’s quite sure where they went, but at least they’re no longer posing a threat to fish and wildlife, and they’re not littering the lake.
00:05:56
Speaker 2: While the event was a total loss and a complete disaster, ten eighty-eight copy of the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the event as a world record largest ever mass balloon release, with one million, four hundred twenty-nine thousand, six hundred forty-three balloons launched. And that is Balloon Fest eighty-six. For Our American Stories, I’m Jesse Edwards, and we…
00:06:21
Speaker 8: …have a real story to tell you. This is not; we’re not making this up.
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Speaker 4: It’s really happened.
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Speaker 8: Mary Ellen bought two bunches of balloons to give to John and I here. She came down, and one of…
0006:29
Speaker 4: …the bunches of balloons…
00:06:31
Speaker 8: …she had tied to her watch, and at the watch was opened up, and the balloons took the watch, and it’s now going out east somewhere. So John and I say, if anybody finds Mary Allen’s watch tied to a bunch of balloons like this, and if you return it to the station, we’ll have all kind of rewards for you.
00:06:49
Speaker 1: And great job is always on that, Jesse. And by the way, share Our American Stories with your friends and send your stories to us, because we’ll make them happen. This is Lee Habib and Our American Stories. Plea Habibe here, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily, again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming.
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